Apparently the RBMK design was in part based on the Soviet Union's much better ability to make pipes than truly large pressure vessels. It's graphite moderated

Apparently the RBMK design was in part based on the Soviet Union's much better ability to make pipes than truly large pressure vessels. It's graphite moderated, water is a neutron poison (+ positive void coefficient = outlawed in the the US by demand of Edward Teller, along with any but the newest of the CANDU designs), the pipes containing the fuel are vertical and can be individuality serviced, thanks of course due to its now notorious lack of containment. Almost certainly intended as a dual use reactor, although I wouldn't be surprised if only some of them were used to breed plutonium. I would hope we have more knowledge of e.g. the Indian and Pakistani nuke systems, then again the simple fact that 90% of the CIA's employees work in the US is enough to make you highly skeptical of our nation's HUMINT. Then again we the US are primarily concerned with them falling into the wrong hands (a parochialism that does not enhance regional or ultimately world stability), and I heard back in the '80s from some friends who were in a position to know that we leaked to the Soviets everything they needed to know about Permissive Action Links to safeguard their nukes. And this of course eventually devolves to a people problem ... a very good argument against NP. As for your last point, while I don't necessarily agree with it, I think the theory is that India isn't going to forswear nukes (South Africa is the only nation that has after developing them), India isn't an enemy, potential or real, like the other "nuclear rogue states" or likely ones in the future, so cozying up to them in this area is not going to produce the moral hazard WRT to the NPT and NP like, e.g., our tacit acceptance of Iran's imminent completion of warheads. And I'd note that on the other hand, our arranging the deposing and likely, although not inevitable death of Muammar Gaddafi demonstrated a very harsh lesson on giving up your WMD programs, undoing whatever good was done here WRT Saddam Hussein. Of course, you could argue that the current situation with Iran is the sort of thing you'd expect by our not continuing an ultra hard line on NP. Me, I'm going to continue to keep handy my copies of Nuclear War Survival Skills along with all the other stuff I collected during the Cold War, including my mother's Civil Defense Block Mother sign, back from the late '60s when we still cared about the survival of the nation.